This week Social Climber brings news of LinkedIn’s purchase of Slideshare – an instance of of a large social network buying a smaller image sharing service the likes of which hasn’t been seen since… well just a few weeks ago. In addition everything  you need to know on FB’s FU approach to big advertisers, news on sensible social media for teachers and an interview with the very likeable founder of socialcam.

Also free gifts!*

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*a news story about free gifts**

**’free gifts which turn out not to be completely free

Social Climber 19 has landed.

This week Dr Climber dons his stethoscope and provides social advice to major health care brands whilst Nestle gets all collaborative with an in-house employee social network.

Elsewhere ice cream and trainers now winging their way to you via social media and LOCOG admits they may not have thought through their plan to stop spectators sharing photos of Olympic events online.

Read the whole thing here – Social Climber no.19 (27th April 2012)

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The University of Sheffield (where I spent 3 hazy years) already know a Twitter Feed from YouTube channel and were ranked 8^th best in the world for social media use by ‘elite’ universities in a recent piece of research. However, Sheffield’s impressive use of social is centred on current students or alumni, not prospective undergraduates. While it is important to use social to give current students the best possible experience of Sheffield, the institution is missing an opportunity to court prospective students. There are steps in the right direction, videos of undergrads talking about their course and university life for example. But all the benefits of studying at Sheffield are not being communicated through social media.

Oxford was the only other UK University to feature in the top 10 list. Perhaps unsurprisingly, American universities, where higher fees have long made university applications a competitive business, make up the rest of the top 10. Harvard, top of the rankings, boasts a hugely impressive YouTube channel with 660 videos earning over 9 million views. It maintains a presence on Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, Google Plus and StumbleUpon. With video topics ranging from the science of cooking to life in dorms there is something for everyone shared amongst an impressive array of social media platforms. No wonder Harvard was voted best academic institution in the world for social media use and in a 2011 interview Harvard Business School CMO Brian Kelly spelt out the value of social media to his institution. He told Mashable “I think about social media as a way for us to engage all the audiences that we care about in ways that we never could before. To me, the greatest benefit of social media for HBS is that it allows people to interact with us, and that wasn’t the case before these social networking tools.”

For better or worse, attracting university applications in the UK has become a more competitive and market-driven endeavour for those selling higher education. Social platforms can give these institutions an edge to attract the best students and show their value for money. I have used the University of Sheffield in this post because it is an example of the good work being done by UK institutions but also shows the potential for improvement, especially in terms of directing social media use to prospective students. British universities should look to their US counterparts for inspiration and utilise social media as a key tool for engaging with both potential and current students. Sharing their specialist knowledge on a range of academic topics and giving prospective students a more authentic flavour of ‘college life’ via social media platforms would be a great place to start.

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